Miles, Kate --- "Soft Law Instruments in Environmental Law: Models for International Investment Law?" [2012] ELECD 633; in Bjorklund, K. Andrea; Reinisch, August (eds), "International Investment Law and Soft Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: International Investment Law and Soft Law

Editor(s): Bjorklund, K. Andrea; Reinisch, August

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781003213

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Soft Law Instruments in Environmental Law: Models for International Investment Law?

Author(s): Miles, Kate

Number of pages: 27

Extract:

5. Soft law instruments in
environmental law: models for
international investment law?
Kate Miles

I. INTRODUCTION

The changing nature of the international legal system over the last 50 years
has generated novel approaches to law-making, innumerable rules, and a
variety of institutions, mechanisms, and new actors within international
law.1 Reflecting these trends, there has also been an increased use of `soft
law' instruments during this period.2 In part, this recent proliferation of
soft law instruments and non-state actor initiatives is due to the manifold
nature of the functions they can fulfil within international law, both as an
end mechanism in themselves and as a precursor to the development of
`hard law'. Nevertheless, certain fields within international law have not
utilized soft law instruments to the same degree as others, international
investment law being just such an area. Recent developments in
investment law, however, together with the trends in international law
more generally, suggest that it is now appropriate to consider the potential
use of soft law instruments within international investment law, and,
indeed, the feasibility of the narrower task of codification of its principles
and rules.


1
See Philippe Sands, `Turtles and Torturers: The Transformation of
International Law' (2001) 33 New York University Journal of International Law and
Politics 527; Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New World Order (2004); Nico Krisch and
Benedict Kingsbury, `Introduction: Global Governance and Global Adminis-
trative Law in the International Legal Order' (2006) 17:1 The European Journal of
International Law 1; ...